The Origin, Tendencies and Principles of Government / A review of the rise and fall of nations from early historic time to the present; with special considerations regarding the future of the United States as the representative government of the world and the form of administration which will secure this consummation. Also, papers on human equality, as represented by labor and its representative, money; and the meaning and significance of life from a scientific standpoint, with its prophecies for the great future.

by Victoria C. Woodhull

SECOND PRONUNCIAMENTO.

CONSTITUTIONAL EQUALITY THE LOGICAL RESULT OF THE XIV. AND XV. AMENDMENTS, WHICH NOT ONLY DECLARE WHO ARE CITIZENS, BUT ALSO DEFINE THEIR RIGHTS, ONE OF WHICH IS THE RIGHT TO VOTE, WITHOUT REGARD TO SEX, BOTH SEXES BEING INCLUDED IN THE MORE COMPREHENSIVE PROHIBITORY TERMS OF RACE AND COLOR.
THE STATE LAWS WHICH PROSCRIBED WOMEN AS VOTERS WERE REPEALED BY THE STATES WHEN THEY RATIFIED SAID AMENDMENTS—THERE ARE NO EXISTING OPERATIVE LAWS WHICH PROSCRIBE THE RIGHT OF ANY CITIZEN TO VOTE—THE PERFECTED FRUITS OF THE LATE WAR—THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES IS BOUND TO PROTECT ITS CITIZENS, MALE AND FEMALE, IN THE EXERCISE OF THEIR RIGHT TO VOTE—THE DUTY OF CONGRESS IN THE PREMISES.

The time has now arrived when it becomes proper to present the final and unanswerable proposition, which cannot by any possibility be controverted, that the several States which, until recently, assumed and exercised the right of defining which of its citizens should exercise the right to vote, have by their own voluntary act not only forever repealed all such prohibitory laws, but also have forever barred their re-enactment.

Of this I have been fully aware since the proclamation by the President that the XV. Amendment had become a part of the Organic Law of the country.

To bring the whole matter properly before the public I published an address on the 2d of April last, in which I announced myself a candidate for the Presidency in 1872, and thus asserted the right of woman to occupy the highest office in the gift of the people.

After that address had had its legitimate effect in arousing the press of the country to the realization that women are a constituent part of the body politic, and to a discussion in a much more general way than had ever been before, I published my second address to the people, announcing that the XVI. Amendment was a dead letter, and that the Constitution fully recognized the equality of all citizens.

In this address the general bearings of the Constitution were examined, and from the blending of its various parts the conclusion was arrived at that no State should deny the right to vote to any citizen.

I now take the final step, and show that the States themselves, by their legislative enactments, have removed the only obstacle which until then had prevented women from voting, and have forever debarred themselves from receding to their former position. It is as follows:

Suffrage, or the right to vote, is declared by the XV. Article of Amendments to the Constitution to be a Right, not a privilege, of citizens of the United States.

A right of a citizen is inherent in the individual, of which he cannot be deprived by any law of any State.

A privilege may be conferred upon the citizen of the State, and by it may be taken away. This distinction is made to show that to vote is not a privilege conferred by a State upon its citizens, but a Constitutional Right of every citizen of the United States, of which they cannot be deprived. The language of the Constitution is most singularly emphatic upon this point. It is as follows: